Via Twitter, I discovered the blog 364 Days of Thanksgiving, by Lutheran Pastor Andy Schroer. Earlier in the week he posted an entry Kyrie Eleison with a prayer litany for the US as we head into our July 4th celebrations:

In light of recent events in our countryand as we prepare to celebrate the Fourth of July, I invite you to pray the Kyrie with me:

Almighty God, we pray today for our nation – a nation blessed by you, but also a nation divided, a nation marked by violence and racism, a nation stained by sin.

Lord, have mercy.

We pray for our government. Bless our president, congress and courts. Help them to act wisely and according to your will. When they don’t, in your mercy forgive them. Use us and others to speak out against injustice and sin, but also help us to respect the governing officials as your representatives.

Lord, have mercy.

We pray for the families of the victims of the massacre in Charleston, South Carolina. Give them the peace that only you can give. We thank you for the faith of those who died and the heaven they are now enjoying because of Jesus. We also pray for the shooter, Dylan Roof, and all those whose hearts are hardened by racism and hate. Help them to find in you forgiveness and love.

Lord, have mercy.

As our nation struggles with issues of sexuality and marriage, we ask you to bless the families of our land. Help husbands and wives to love each other as you have loved them. In your mercy, forgive our many sins against your gift of sexuality.

Lord, have mercy.

Be with the Christians of our land. Give us the courage to stand firm in your Word. Forgive us our pride and anger. Help us to speak your truth boldly and in love.

Lord, have mercy.

We ask all of these things knowing that we and our nation are unworthy of your love. Yet, trusting in your mercy and the forgiveness Jesus won for us, we pray:

At the end they issue a call to prayer, and include a wonderful litany for marriage. I urge all of our readers to print this out and pray it regularly.

Today there is no place for either triumphalism or despair, so we prayerfully and sincerely urge a spirit of charity by all. We speak out of a concern for the consequences that our people and our neighbors will suffer from an unjust and unwise decision by five justices of the Supreme Court. We call those justices to repentance, even as we echo Jesus’ words, praying for God the Father to forgive them, for they know not what they have done.

We call our people to a season of prayer for marriage and offer the accompanying Litany and Prayer to guide us.

A Litany for Marriage

We thank you, heavenly Father, for graciously creating us in your image, male and female, and for ordaining

that a man and woman shall be joined as one flesh in the covenant of marriage.

We thank you, O Father.

We thank you for the gift and heritage of children and for placing them in homes which may be havens of

blessing and peace.

We thank you, O Father.

We thank you for the love between fathers and mothers and sons and daughters that binds together the

generations and undergirds our country’s social fabric.

We thank you, O Father.

Lord Jesus Christ, divine Bridegroom, we repent for all the situations in which we have dishonored the

covenant of marriage through selfishness or unfaithfulness.

Lord, have mercy upon us.

We repent as a Church where we have failed to prepare our children for holy matrimony, or to care for those

who are widowed, divorced or single.

Lord, have mercy upon us.

We repent where as citizens we have become complacent and neglected the defense of marriage in the public

square.

Lord, have mercy upon us.

We pray you, Holy Spirit, to restore marriage to its due honor in our country and to revive our marriages and

families as emblems of your love.

Deliver us by your grace and power.

We pray you to strengthen our bishops and other leaders as they join with faithful churches to make a strong

God-honoring defense of your design for marriage.

Deliver us by your grace and power.

We pray you to have mercy on those who have promoted false teaching about marriage and on those who

have been led astray and harmed by it.

Deliver us by your grace and power.

Grant us courage, O Triune God, to hold fast to the truth of your Word, and give grace to those who are

counted worthy to suffer for the Name of Christ.

“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his

glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and

authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen” (Jude 24-25).

A Prayer for Marriage

Almighty God our heavenly Father, you have created us male and female in your image and have ordained that a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. Look down in mercy, we pray, on our families, our church and our nation. Knit together in constant affection those who, in Holy Matrimony, have been made one flesh. Turn the hearts of the parents to the children, the hearts of the children to the parents, and the hearts of all to those who are single or alone. Finally, grant that your Church may steadfastly defend the unchangeable bond of marriage which embodies the mystery of Christ’s love for us; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory, now and forever.

The theme for the 2015 National Day of Prayer is Lord, Hear Our Cry, emphasizing the need for individuals, corporately and individually, to place their faith in the unfailing character of their Creator, who is sovereign over allgovernments, authorities, and men. To further highlight our theme, we’ve chosen I Kings 8:28 as our Scripture for this year: “Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day.”

Here’s the prayer for today’s National Day of Prayer in the US, written by the National Day of Prayer Chairman

Heavenly Father,

We come to You in the Name that is above every name—Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Our hearts cry out to You.

Knowing that You are a prayer-answering, faithful God—the One we trust in times like these—we ask that You renew our spirits, revive our churches, and heal our land.

We repent of our sins and ask for Your grace and power to save us. Hear our cry, oh God, and pour out Your Spirit upon us that we may walk in obedience to Your Word.

We are desperate for Your tender mercies. We are broken and humbled before You.

Forgive us, and in the power of Your great love, lift us up to live in Your righteousness.

We pray for our beloved nation. May we repent and return to You and be a light to the nations. And we pray for our leaders and ask that You give them wisdom and faith to follow You.

Preserve and protect us, for You are our refuge and only hope.

Deliver us from all fears except to fear You, and may we courageously stand in the Truth that sets us free.

From our 2004 archives, the following prayer, often called The Methodist Covenant Prayer, makes a good prayer of fresh commitment to the Lord for the New Year.

I am no longer my own, but yours:
Put me to what you will,
Rank me with whom you will;
Put me to suffering;
Let me be employed by you or laid aside by you,
Exalted for you or brought low by you;
Let me be full, let me be empty;
Let me be nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
To your pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
You are mine, and I am yours. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
Let it be ratified in heaven. Amen

Here’s part of the closing prayer / meditative exercise which is part of the post:

What is one broken area in which you still long to see transformation and wholeness? Name it and lift it up before God in prayer. Ask God to act as the master craftsman mending and making whole your brokenness.

An excerpt of a prayer by Charles Spurgeon acknowledging that we need God’s grace even to ask for grace! I forget that all too often….

We would bless Thee for all the mercies with which Thou dost surround us, for all things which our eyes see that are pleasant, which our ears hear that are agreeable, and for everything that maketh existence to be life. Especially do we own this dependence when we come to deal with spiritual things. O God, we are less than nothing in the spiritual world. We do feel this growingly, and yet even to feel this is beyond our power. Thy grace must give us even to know our need of grace. We are not willing to confess our own sinfulness until Thou dost show it to us. Though it stares us in the face our pride denies it, and our own inability is unperceived by us. We steal Thy power and call it our own till Thou dost compel us to say that we have no strength in ourselves.